


Interconnections

by eerian_sadow



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV), Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Genre: Crossover, Galentine's exchange, Gen, Gift Fic, exchange fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-21
Updated: 2014-02-21
Packaged: 2018-01-13 07:34:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,991
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1217812
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/eerian_sadow/pseuds/eerian_sadow
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There's a small, non-demony problem in Sunnydale.  Giles calls in an old friend to help solve it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Interconnections

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Annerb](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Annerb/gifts).



> written for annerbhp during the 2014 Galentine's exchange on dreamwidth.

Melinda May sat in the outdoor cafe, nursing a latte with too much whipped cream and a flavor she wasn't even sure she'd pronounced correctly, and waited for her contact to arrive. She hadn't thought she would ever hear from him again--honestly she'd thought that he and his best friend would both be dead before they were thirty--but the agent had answered when he called for help.

"Melinda, I'm glad you came."

She looked up from the whipped cream that was melting in the California summer heat and gave Rupert Giles a small smile. "How could I resist, when you said your problem was more my kind of weird than yours?"

"Forgive my word choice," The Englishman said, sitting down across from her. "I'm afraid I spend more time with people young enough to be my children than is healthy."

"You and me both." She sipped at the latte to give him time to order as a perky waitress came over to the table--tea, with a teaspoon of sugar and few drops of milk just like she remembered. "So, why did you need SHIELD assistance?"

"Because your group knows more about science based anomalies than mine. I would, of course, return the favor any time you found yourself immersed in a supernatural situation."

"Supernatural situations seem to be more science-based than we always believed, Rupert. Not that we wouldn't accept some _very_ discreet assistance if we needed it." May set her cup down on the table and gave him her full attention. "Tell me about your problem."

"There is a young woman lurking about the outskirts of town..."

-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-

"All right, people, pay attention. This is a quick grab and go mission, but we don't have a lot of margin for error. Our target is a girl, roughly fifteen years old, and we have to bring her in before she becomes food for one of the local predators and causes even more trouble for the residents."

Skye and Simmons shared a confused look at May's words before the hacker spoke up. "Okay, first, it's just us three so you probably don't need the whole gung-ho mission briefing thing. And second, what?"

"Skye's right," Simmons agreed. "You haven't exactly given us much to go on. I know you want to protect your source, but we need a few more details if we're going to effectively help neutralize the situation."

The senior agent sighed. "This whole situation is need to know. I need the two of you to trust me when I say that I can't give you all the details."

"We trust you," the scientist replied.

"We just need to know that we're not going in to blow up a terrorist facility with no extraction plan," Skye added.

"It's nothing that dire," May assured them. "But we have to go in quietly, grab the target and get out without attracting attention or causing trouble for the locals."

"Okay, but why us? I mean, I hate to say it but Ward is a lot better at this cloak and dagger stuff than the rest of us put together."

Simmons nodded in agreement. "Even Fitz would be a better choice than me."

"Because were all scared sixteen year old girls once." May's face was serious as she pulled up the picture Giles had given her. "None of us had her physical difficulties to overcome, but we all have a better chance of connecting without bringing someone intimidating like Ward along."

Skye stared in shock--this was clearly the first mutant she had seen who couldn't pass, while Simmons studied the picture with the dedicated fascination of a scientist who has forgotten, for the moment, that her subject is a living being.

"Are we certain she's human?" Jemma asked, rotating the image and studying their target’s facial tentacles carefully. 

"My contact is, but we'll know more once we have her in custody."

"So we're going to pick her up and put her in a cell because she looks different?" the hacker asked softly.

"No." Melinda's voice was firm. "We're going to pick her up, give her a safe place to sleep and food until we can take her someplace she can fit in better. One of Coulson's contacts in New York is equipped to safely help augmented humans."

“Okay. So what do we need to do?”

-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-

“Local hunter has the east border secure,” Skye reported, tracking Buffy Summers’ movement through the cemetery on the edge of their target’s territory. “Hopefully that keeps the predators you were worried about away.”

 _”Copy,”_ May replied. _”Keep an eye on your surroundings. Simmons is the bait, but that doesn’t mean she won’t show up in your sector instead.”_

 _”I would like to add that I do not appreciate being the bait,”_ Jemma cut in. _”I could have handled the tracking as well as Skye.”_

“Yeah, but you look sweeter and more harmless,” the hacker replied with a grin.

 _”You’re closer to her age,”_ the scientist rebutted. _”And I’m a better shot if you need backup with the Night-Night Pistol.”_

 _”And that’s why I have the pistol,”_ the senior agent said. _”Skye, do you have a location on the target?”_

“Not yet. But it’s not quite ten yet and Buffy said she’s been coming out here around ten fifteen.”

“Oh! Are you guys here for the tentacle girl?”

SKye nearly jumped out of her skin at the sound of Buffy's sister’s voice. “Don’t sneak up on people like that!”

“Been here for a while,” the girl replied unashamedly. She held out a thermal cup to the hacker. “Tara sent me out with drinks and snacks. And a stake, just in case.”

“Thanks.” The older woman took the cup and turned her attention back to the screen. “So, vampires huh? I guess I should be ready for anything after alien invasions, shouldn’t I?”

“Probably,” Dawn replied. “So, tentacle girl?”

“Yeah, tentacle girl.” Skye frowned at her screen. “May, I have movement in your sector but nothing identifying the target. Be extra careful.”

_”Acknowledged.”_

“So what are you going to do with her?” the teenager asked, sipping at a cup of her own. “Once you find her, I mean.”

“We’re going to give her someplace safe to stay so she can finish school and then she can figure out what she wants to do with her life.”

“Good. I was afraid you were going to take her back to wherever she ran away from.”

“What makes you think she ran away?” The hacker tracked an anomalous movement reading near the edge of her “safe” zone. ”I’ve got movement by the safe zone. Might need backup, May.”

_”On my way. Simmons, stay put.”_

“If you’re human, you don’t come to Sunnydale unless you’re running away from something,” Dawn said solemnly. “Sometimes that’s true for demons and vampires, too. We might be in California, but people don’t come here because they want to. How come you think she didn’t?”

Skye thought of her own time in the orphanage--the “group home” as her caretakers had all insisted, but they kids had all known what it really was--and her own failed attempts to run away and just _vanish_. “Didn’t say I didn’t. I know what it’s like to have to live somewhere that you don’t belong.”

“Oh,” the girl said softly, clutching her cup. “You won’t make her stay someplace awful, will you?”

“No way. May says this friend of our boss’ is awesome and that he’ll take good care of her.”

-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-

“Guys, it’s two in the morning, I’m still on Florida time and Dawn is asleep on my leg. We haven’t seen anything since that stray dog and I really have to pee. Do you think we can try again tomorrow night? I mean, this girl probably isn’t going anywhere, right?”

 _”Except for the whole being eaten by a vampire part, no,”_ Buffy replied, breaking the almost suspicious quiet that had come from her comm line all night. _”We still don’t know what will happen if a vampire feeds on one of these mutant humans, and I don’t want to find out any time soon.”_

 _”Neither do I,”_ May added. _”We’ll stay til morning and hope to lure her out. After that we’ll sleep and come back with gear from the Bus to locate her.”_

“That doesn’t help with the ‘I have to pee’ part.”

 _”Use a bush,”_ Buffy and May supplied simultaneously.

“I kind of hate you guys right now,” the hacker replied. Then she shook Dawn to wake her--no way was she leaving the kid asleep and defenseless while she found a bush--and climbed carefully to her feet.

She was more concerned by the pins and needles in the leg Dawn had been using as a pillow than her surroundings as she hobbled toward the closest bush. As a result, she didn’t realize the leaves were rustling warningly or that anyone was hiding there until she was practically on top of the girl.

“Oh. Um.” Skye blinked as their target flinched and hugged her legs to her chest. “Hey, it’s okay. I’m not here to hurt you.”

The tentacles on the girl’s face curled in and she shook her head. “I won’t go back there.”

“Go back where? Cause I’m not here to take you back anywhere. My team and I want you to be safe, which Sunnydale definitely isn’t.”

 _”Skye, do you have her?”_ May asked through her forgotten earpiece. _”Try to keep her there. Simmons and I are en route.”_

“I don’t believe you,” The mutant said. “Everyone just wants to take me back to the group home.”

“Oh, hell no.” The hacker set aside her need to pee and sat down next to the girl. Carefully, not sure it would be well received at all, she put an arm around the teenager and hugged her comfortingly. “I spent way too much time in a home to send you back to one. My boss wants to hook you up with this swanky school in New York. You ever been to New York?”

“No,” the girl replied. “Well, when I was a baby, but that doesn’t really count. You promise I’m not going back to the home?”

“No chance. We just want to help you.”

“Skye, is everything…” Dawn popped around the bush and her worried frown broke into a smile when she saw the girl they’d been looking for. “You found her! Hi, I’m Dawn. Are you hungry? Cause I have cookies and half a peanut butter sandwich, and I think there’s still some tea in the thermos.”

“My name is Shayla,” the mutant replied softly. “And that would be really nice.”

 

-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-

“I can’t thank you enough,” Giles said, giving May a quick hug. “I don’t know if I was more worried for Shayla’s safety or my Slayer’s, but I’m relieved either way.”

“Me too,” Melinda replied. “Especially after some of what you read to me. How do you live in this world?”

“I was born to it, rather like you were born to the more martial fields. And I would rather know what goes bump in the night than simply speculate.”

“Me too.” She turned and looked toward the plane. “We have to get going. The Director wants us back on duty ASAP, so we need to get Shayla to New York.”

“You have my number if you need us?”

“And Dawn’s, and Willow’s email. If we need you, we’ll be in touch.”

“I hope it won’t be so many years before we see each other again. Be safe, Melinda.”

“I will. You, too.”

-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-

“Why did you say yes when he called?” Coulson asked as they watched Shayla walk toward the tall black woman who had been sent to meet their plane. 

“He’s an old friend. You help friends, right?”

“Yes, but any team could have been dispatched for this job. You didn’t have to do it.”

“I know.”


End file.
